Saturday, 27 June 2009

Disappointment

Talking I try to hear what someone says,
understand how they think,
learn their thoughts,
walk in someone else's shoes.

I want to put myself behind me.

I can't.

I fail.

I am disappointed.

Two ears and one mouth,
for a reason. Listen twice as hard as talk.

Learning is my passion, but people are hard to study.
Conversational words aren't set in stone, they slip and change their shape.
You cannot pin them down.
Quickly spoken, easily forgotten.
Said in haste, remembered forever.
Understanding more is loving more.
I need a hug.


Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Word as Linguist

What the Word made was whole and stable, till
That snake pushed a theory in another key. Then Eve
Bit deep, starting feminist studies, as she traded dirunal
Garden, preferring post modern longings that branch, and fork
And Twist between Divinity and the Devil's branded
Habitations. After dreaming of Michael Angelo, some
Chose lyres whose strings set consonants in Sistine sepia,
Or follow guttural longings rattling down pulsating throats.


Words adapt: servant, master, hidden imperial will;
Inducting smiles, a frown, a silver lining; double takes
Brimful of Derrida, still busy in the judgment seat.
His tribe constructs each moments brief. They delete,
Like no other, traditions, key texts, purest commonsense;
Cast aside immortal longings; and such truth of generations
That sanctify point and purpose, or insource epic stamina.
This is manifold history, a recurring choice; ever there:

A newly risen Promise, or Babylonian agencies. But

No option for our tribe: Prophesy and Revelation, knowing
Poetry is elemental; its interlinked intimacies remember, read,
And write us. there is the rock cleft memory along a home-
Returning. Forty years and just a glimpse for a man of faith.
With others, imperfection asks word and grammar to rhyme
With thought. Intensify metaphors: they all uncoil the mind,
Burnish spirit: heal split infinities. Summon benedictions:
They rearrange, restore us, for this release, this search.


We feel to see to breathe. Night faces brighten yet again
As breaking light lays the first shafts to kiss each flower.
The falling leaf is equinox, yet without season, narrating
His walk in the Garden. That we cannot share, but share again
Because words are there to tell me so; because I see faces
Who have strolled some graceful evenings in that far place.
They elicit words that signify, that we should cleave unto,
Because they touch; because they tell....far more than words.

Saturday, 10 January 2009

Starting again

Ermita de Nuestra Senora de Eunate, donde el peregrino se convierte solo en hombre o mujer...

En la puerta Oeste de acceso al Templo reza un cartel asi:

"Esta piedras fueron puestas para el silencio,
este espacio es para la reflexion,
este lugar es para la oracion.
No solo abra los ojos como un turista,
o todos los sentidos como un peregrino,
abre el corazon como hombre o mujer que busca.
Entra con cuidado y respeto,
entre estes piedras estan recogidos muchos siglos,
muchos silencios,
muchas oraciones."

I am making arrangements to walk the camino de Santiago de Compostela again. Hopefully we will leave on 24th August, intending to start from St. Jean Pied la Port. I am excited already. The camino offers so many opportunities, to be inspired, to think, to be still, to pray, to wonder, to have adventures, to laugh, to be a pilgrim. Every journey is a new journey, a new experience that cannot be predicted. In my enthusiasm for the trip I have been looking around the various websites and I found this photo and poem. The spanish text above roughly translates:

The Hermitage of Our Lady of Eunate, where the pilgrim becomes just a man or a woman...At the west door over the Church there is a prayer card that reads:

"These stones were put here for the silence,
this space is for reflection,
this place is for prayer.
Do not open your eyes as only a tourist,
or your senses like a pilgrim,
open your heart like a man or a woman who searches.
Enter with care and respect,
enter these stones that are recalling many centuries,
many silences,
many prayers."

Friday, 24 October 2008

Dangerous Beauty


The sea in not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it. On the contrary this adds to its beauty.
Simone Weil, Waiting for God

Saturday, 18 October 2008

Jasmine in the evening...


Sometimes you should just avoid taking a hungry vegetarian walking in the evening. In my defense though, it smells great and I think it might be addictive.



Thursday, 16 October 2008

The collar

We  talked briefly today about loving poetry. This poem did not come up, but I do not have John Donne with me here, and this is my very best second.

I love this poem on many levels. Most simply perhaps because I associate myself with the idea: My lines and life are free: free as the road, loose as the wind, as large as store. But, as the poet so carefully suggests this is a human paradox. Ultimately, perhaps it is an illusion. Whatever the religious context of this poem, I find that it is a spring board for many other thoughts, and for this reason alone, it amuses the more bizzare thought processes of my mind!

I struck the board, and cried, 'No more.
I will abroad.
What? Shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the road,
Loose as the wind, as large as store.
Shall I still be in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me blood and not restore
What I have lost with cordial fruit?
Sure there was wine
Before my sighs did dry it: there was corn,
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the year only lost to me?
Have I no bays to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted?
All wasted?
Not so, my heart: but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh blown age
On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute
of what is fit, and not. Forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands,
Which pretty thoughts have made, and made to thee
good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and would not see.
Awake: take heed,
I will abroad.
Call in thy Death's head there: tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load.
But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild
At every word,
Me thoughts I heard one calling, Child:
And I replied, My Lord.

Tuesday, 7 October 2008

Faith Index

Ben XVI - Education and Inspiration

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Reading Index

Authors and Posts


Father Christmas - The Monks of Tibhirine

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Index of Stations


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Cloister Feasting


Find food for fasts and feasts, or choose something you fancy from the recipes - 


Feasts
Fourth Week of Advent
Fourth Week of Advent 2
John the Evangelist - 27th December
Christmas Octave - Holidays and Holy Days
Epiphany
St Agnes - 21st January
Francis de Sales - 24th January
The Conversion of St Paul  - 25th January
St. Angela Mercini - 27th January
St. Thomas Aquinas - 28th January
St Thomas Aquinas - 28th January 2
St. John Bosco - 31st January
Our Lady of Lourdes - 11th February
The Chair of St. Peter - 22nd February
Shrove Tuesday
Ash Wednesday
Simple Lent Supper 1
Simple Lent Supper 2
Simple Lent Supper 3
Simple Lent Supper 4
Simple Lent Supper 5
Sunday in Lent
Passiontide
St. Patrick - 17th March
Easter Sunday
St Pancras - 12th May
St Dominic - 24th May
St Madeleine Sophie Barat - 25th May
St Philip Neri - 26th May
Pentecost
Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary
Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary 2
Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary 3
St Thomas - 3rd July
St Ulrich - 4th July
St Benedict 14th July
St. James - 25th July
St James - 25th July 
St James - 25th July
St Maximillian Kolbe 14th August
St Bernard of Clairvaux 20th August
St Monica 27th August
St Aidan of Lindisfarne 31st August
Fast Friday Friendly Hug
Fast Friday Luxury





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